Your new favorite dessert is at this Phoenix ice cream shop
My first visit to Novel Ice Cream in Phoenix was completely unplanned.
I had just finished shopping at Pueblo for one more succulent to add to my collection when I stepped out and saw a sign across the street that demanded to be noticed — ice cream stuffed donuts. This, I had to try.
Just behind The Wayward Taphouse on Grand Avenue, a gate led into a courtyard that's home to Novel Ice Cream shop, a tattoo shop and a coffee shop.
Novel is a counter-service operation with enough room inside for the staff and all the treats you’ll choose from but not much else. The owners — Brandon Douglas, his wife Jennifer and his brother Travis, who runs a Novel Ice Cream shop in Mesa — elected to maintain a small footprint to keep costs and prices down.
The first thing I noticed, besides the slight size of the shop, was the staff’s sunny attitude and willingness to guide us through the menu.
“We hire people who like people,” Brandon Douglas said.
The next notable detail was the interesting array of ice cream flavors, from cookies and cream to bourbon caramel toffee. The honey lavender really got my attention.
There are 12 flavors and, once or twice a month, they roll out a limited batch that sells out quickly. New featured flavors will be announced in a few weeks. Sorbets are also available.
What makes Novel Ice Cream so good?
Novel’s secrets are using the highest quality ingredients, using a higher percentage of butterfat in the ice cream and working with a seasoned ice cream chef and baker. The honey is from a local producer, the lavender is from an Arizona farm and all the flavors are small batch.
“We are on a mission to ruin all other ice cream for people,” Brandon Douglas said.
So what could possibly make this inventive, artisan ice cream even better?
A doughnut, of course.
Why you need this doughnut ice cream sandwich in your life
Novel Ice Cream calls its ice cream stuffed doughnut a Dough Melt. It consists
of a glazed doughnut cut in half, stuffed with the ice cream of your choice and studded with the cereal of your choice.
I chose the Zoe Dough Melt, created by and named after one of the staff. It’s a glazed doughnut stuffed with honey lavender ice cream and rolled in cinnamon crunch cereal. It comes wrapped in a paper cone, which makes it a bit more manageable to eat.
Seated at a shaded table, I took my first bite.
The pillow-y doughnut gave way to luxurious ice cream with just the right amount of lavender. It was fragrant and floral, but not soapy, with a finish feathered by the warmth of honey. The cereal bits delivered small, intense explosions of butter, sugar and cinnamon. Yet, somehow, the treat never felt cloyingly sweet.
I gladly finished it as my dinner. Though the addition of cereal may spark nostalgia for some people. I didn’t fall in love with the Dough Melt because it was a taste of childhood or reminded me of my grandmother, my late grandmother was an elegant woman who was not into lavender, breakfast cereal or cookie baking.
No, I fell in love with the quality of the treat, the creativity of its maker and the perfection of its mouthfeel and flavor. I also loved the amount of pleasure it gave me for $5.50.
Details: Zoe Dough Melt ($5.50) at Novel Ice Cream, 1028 Grand Ave., Cottage 6, Phoenix, 602-373-2235. Also at 40 N. Macdonald St., #2, Mesa. 602-7844729, Instagram @novel_phx.
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